Love like Quicksand
by FruitSmiles
Summary: Mitchie's got a mature attitude about her that strikes Shane's attention. Mitchie quickly realizes the impact Shane has on her as a potential lover. What she doesn't realize, though, is that he will tread her down a very dark path that even she didn't know existed until Shane came along; a path that she can't turn back from, no matter how hard she tries.
1. Chapter 1

**Hey guys! Please review! Tell me if you like it or not. Much love. xoxoxo ~Fruitsmiles**

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Chapter One- Party

I walked into the quiet house flipping on all the light switches as I went. With the lights on, the house seemed emptier than with the lights off. As I took a glimpse around the main floor I realized all of the rooms were trashed. The scent of hot sauce and pickle juice filled my nostrils. I clearly remember not having either in my kitchen. I groaned. In no way possible was I going to get my report done and get the house cleaned with the time I've been allotted. I stepped over some paper cups and grabbed the house phone.

"Hello?" My best friend Alex answered in her usual perky voice. Alex has been my best friend since forever. We've been through everything together from heartbreaks to fights to late night phone calls and runaways. We're practically sisters.

"Um, hi, guess whose house is trashed?" I said half sarcastic, half upset.

"Not mine." Alex answered sympathetically, trying to reassure me with a small laugh.

"No," I sighed, "Mine is. My rents come home in less than eight hours and I still have that English paper due."

"Mitchie, I wish I could help. But I have lots to do too. My AP classes have had me loaded all week." She explained apologetically. "Wait, why didn't you clean today? We had school off."

"I got called in to the shelter. They had me working all day." I smelt the animal still on me and I cringed. "Which reminds me, I smell like wet dog. I'm in desperate need of a shower. I'll talk to you later Al."

"Ok, have fun." I hung up and threw the phone on the couch, stomping my way up the stairs to my room.

The house is trashed because my beloved Alex threw a party in** my** house. Not hers. I stayed at another friend's house last night and went straight to work this morning at the animal shelter. Working at the animal shelter is okay. I love animals and the pay isn't so bad either, the funny thing is I don't **have** to work. My parents have the world at their fingertips. But I don't want nor do I like things being handed to me. I like earning things. My parents work as CEO's of this cereal company. Cheesy I know. I like working but it would be nice if at times I could get a break. Or maybe if I didn't have a rebellious best-friend who takes advantage of me I'd be a little more content. That'd be good too. But I love her and I feel like it's my responsibility to look after her when I can.

Walking into my room I suddenly became grateful that I have a lock on my door. Because as of now, my room is the only clean one in the house all because I locked it during the party. But I couldn't say the same for my parent's room or our other bedrooms. Yep, I'm dead, I thought. I pulled my laptop on my lap and began typing my paper on my theories of the Supernatural. How stupid! I thought. My teacher swore I had talent and thus assigned a paper for me to write for some competition. It was just torture for her to acknowledge how good I was. Especially since she announced in front of the **whole** student body just how 'splendid' and 'surreal' my writing was.

_Friday morning! Finally!_ I thought as I walked in to English. I placed my paper in the middle of the stack hoping the teacher wouldn't pick it up. I tried my best to write it terribly and to my dismay it was decent. No matter how terrible I tried to be, I couldn't. As I sat in my seat the teacher went through the pile and sure enough it was my paper she held in her hands.

"Michelle." The teacher called me by my full name, which I hate being called I might add, up to her desk after her lecture was over. I walked up to her desk.

"I like what you've written. Very insightful. Would you mind writing a short story on your choice of the Supernatural?" I shook my head, clearly defiant. "I'd rather not—" The bell rang.

"Good. Have it on my desk by Monday." I sighed, grabbing my books and stalked out of the class. Lunch didn't come soon enough. I was desperate to talk to Alex so I ran, ignoring all the stares I was getting from my peers, into the cafeteria.

"She liked my paper!" I half-screeched slamming my food on the table. Few of the fries scattered along the table.

"Usually that's a good thing." Alex joked.

"Well it's not!" I said, glaring at my tray. "I'm supposed to have a short-story on Mrs. Ethan's desk by Monday. Do you know how long it takes to write a short story?" Alex pulled me into a side-hug.

"Still upset about the house?" Alex asked. She could easily see through my excuses. I don't even know why I tried lying to her anymore. I sighed and looked at her, clearly upset.

"I'm dead. You know my parents. They're not going to be happy about this." Alex took a bite of her salad before turning to me.

"Maybe if you explained to them you didn't throw the party, they might listen. I could talk to them." She offered.

"Alex it doesn't matter what you say. You know they won't listen."

"Then make them." She prodded. I sighed and listened on what she had planned.

"Mitchie, I don't care who started the party. Your house therefore it's your responsibility." My mom yelled at me ruthlessly, picking up trash. She must've been working on cleaning all day.

"Look. For the thousandth time! I'm sorry!" I said begging her for forgiveness. My mom cleaned up the last bit of trash then turned to me.

"You're grounded. No parties, no friends. No phone!" She said, snatching my cell phone out of my hand.

"But Mom!" My mom put her index finger up in front of my face to warn me, she did that when I was back talking. I knew better than to say anything that could jeopardize what little freedom I had left. I still did have my car.

"Fine. I'm going to go do my homework now. And wallow in despair." I said sarcastically, turning on my heels walking towards my room.

"Love you too hunny!" My mom called out from the kitchen.

"I love you!" I called back willfully. Making me feel guilty was just one of my mom's grueling tactics.

I walked in my room throwing my notebook on my bed and grabbing the laptop off my desk. My mom hadn't grounded me from the computer. I smiled at the thought, my computer flashed, signaling I had a message on Facebook.

'Hey gurl. How'd the talk with the rents go? You didn't reply to my texts! Oh, partyy tonight! 8! I'll pick u up. Luv yaa. –Al'

I hit the reply button and strummed my fingers along the keyboard.

'The talk went terrible! I'M GROUNDED FOR LIFE! No party for me Al, sorry. –Mitchie' I hit send and closed my laptop shut. If Alex could she'd jump out of her computer and pull me into the party. Alex was a party f.r.e.a.k. She went to tons and tons of parties while maintaining a 4.0 GPA. She was like a effing god. And the one thing she loved next to partying was dragging me along with. I wouldn't drink or smoke but she did occasionally. Alex mostly went to parties and hit on tons of guys she didn't know. Many of them wayyy too old for her. Considering she was 16, it wasn't safe for her to be around that kind of stupidness. Call me crazy but that's how I thought about it. It was all stupid. I've just never had the time of day to go out and party.

I'd just finished cleaning up the plates from dinner when the doorbell rang. I heard my Mom's footsteps rush to the door. Please don't be Alex, please don't be-

"Alex!" My mom called out happily. Alex's voice was muffled and low. I couldn't hear a word she said. A few moments later they walked into the kitchen, both of them staring at me.

"Go on, go study at Alex's. Here's your phone." My mom urged, handing me my phone again. Another one of Alex's tricks, I thought. She was clever. No wonder she is the way she is. But, just like that, I was outside standing beside Al's Mercedes.

"Shoes, skirt, and shirt are in the back. Get changed missy." Alex urged, pushing me into the car. I didn't argue with Alex, this was ritual by now. The partying. The sneaking out. The sneaking back in. At least this time I wasn't sneaking out.

I stepped outside of the car and Alex did a double-take over me after I dressed. I couldn't help but look past her to the house to see if my parents were peeking through the shutters. They weren't.

"Lovely." She said, clearly proud of herself. She reached up past my neck and unclipped my hair. It fell into bunches of curls at my shoulders, running down my back. Alex shook my hair up a bit more and took off her long black jacket, revealing her outfit. Her shirt was outlined in satin black and the ruffles at the bottom of the shirt really showed her body features, it was a tube top. Her black mini-skirt looked leather, resembling mine closely. I was wearing a tight black shirt that cut too low and had a small slit that ran down to my bellybutton. My pierced bellybutton that is.

I got in the car and Alex started driving east out of town.

"Where's the party?" I asked finally, realizing she never told me where.

"San Antonio." Oh, no no no no. I thought. San Antonio was the worst place for parties. What is she thinking? We're going to end up really trashed tonight. Whether either of this liked it or not. San Antonio is party freaking central.


	2. Chapter 2

**Please review! Yes, I'm begging. ~Fruitsmiles **

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Chapter Two- More Than Strangers

After an hour of driving and trying to get Alex to turn around, we ended up at a teen club in downtown San Antonio. The club was called Masquerade. It was one of the upper ones. By upper, I mean the nicer ones. What wasn't pleasant was they allowed sixteen to twenty year olds. The age range wouldn't bother me so much if Alex didn't take advantage of it, and I mean really take advantage of it. This is our first time being in San Antonio for a party and I'm not exactly too thrilled about it.

"You just need to relax, Mitchie. Here," Alex puts a small bottle in my hand as we walk towards the club. I look at the auburn liquid in it. "Is this whiskey?" I ask timidly. She nods her head after gulping hers down.

"It's not even the same amount you would take of cough syrup. I promise, it'll just calm you down." I roll my eyes as she persuades me and I finally drink it so she'll shut up.

Inside the club the bright neon lights shine all over the dance floor. The rest of the club is practically pitch black.

"Oooh. Let's go dance." Alex pulls me with her to the dance floor. I can't help but dance when one of our favorite songs comes on. We sing to it together and dance effortlessly. It's a good time for that brief moment. As a new song comes on, a guy comes up behind Alex. He's definitely older, honestly, he looks too old to even be here. Alex goes off and dances with him in the middle of the dance floor, I don't try to tell her that she shouldn't, I'm not her mom. I try to keep an eye on her best I can but after a few songs, I don't even know where she is.

About a few hours into the night, I've settled into one of the booths with a few other single girls and we're all chatting about. I'm glad the shot of whiskey I took earlier didn't do much to affect my senses, although Alex was right, it did relax me a bit. I do my best effort to try and keep my eye on Alex as much as I can by spotting her here and there throughout the night. I find myself content with that. I'm not her babysitter, I know, but I would definitely feel responsible if something bad happened to her. I decide I need some fresh air and when I ask if any of the girls want to come, they all say no. I make my way to the exit and go outside alone. I'm thankful for the cool fall air though, the club was getting stuffy and I'm pretty sure it was because of all of the dry ice they were pumping for affect. Sometimes stuff like that gets to my asthma.

"Hey darling, want a cigarette?" A man asks me. He looks quite creepy and he approaches me rather closely and out of nowhere. I can smell the alcohol on his breath.

"Um, no thank you." I go to turn back around to go inside and get away from him. He grabs my arm and jerks me back.

"Hey! Let me go!" I shout at him. He smacks me across my face and I collide with the asphalt. I go to get up but he leans down close to me, smacking me again. I prepare myself for another blow, knowing I'm not quick enough to get away even if I tried to. The blow doesn't come but I hear scuffling. I look up just in time to see the culprit pinned against the wall by a taller, muscular man. He punches him in the face once before tossing him hard on to the pavement. He then kicks the man in his side. The creeper runs off in the other direction and the gentleman who saved me leans down to look at me. He carefully places his fingertips underneath my lip to assess the damage. I don't think it's bleeding but it's definitely swollen.

"It doesn't look too bad. Come on, I'll help you get out of here." He grabs my hands and helps me to my feet. He has a gentle voice, which wasn't what I was expecting after watching him defend me like that.

"I don't need help, thank you." I say, walking back towards the club. He touches my arm gently and I stop to turn back at him. "What?" I say rudely.

"I'm just trying to help you. Are you okay?" My anger is boiling and I know I'm taking it out on this perfectly innocent man but hey, it happens.

"Does it look like I'm okay?" I point to my lip before jerking my hand back down. He takes another step closer.

"Is there anything I can do?" I sigh, trying to pull myself together. He's clearly being a nice man and I'm being a big bitch about it. I take a deep breath in and out.

"I'm sorry. Thank you for your help." He nods with a soft smile. I watch as his lip curls up in a grin; he has a beautiful smile.

"It's no problem. You never answered me though. Is there anything I can do?" I blink a few times, smacking my forehead in stupidity.

"Right, oh my gosh, sorry. Uhm, yeah. Actually, I need to find my friend." I respond, pointing towards the door over my shoulder. He follows me back in the club and we start looking for Alex.

"She'll probably be dancing with an older guy. She's wearing a mini skirt and a tube top with ruffles. All black. She has a heart shaped face and she's a little taller than me." The man turns me by grabbing my arm and I see him pointing at a woman leaning against the wall near some tall tables. I walk over to her quickly, grabbing her by the forearm and dragging her towards the exit.

"Oh my goshhhh Mitch, what are you doinnn?" I ignore her slurred questions until we're outside. Great, she's been drinking.

"Give me your keys." I hold out my hand and Al just rolls her eyes. She folds her hands across her chest in defiance.

"Al, give them to me." She puckers her lips and everything, it's quite a show.

"May I?" The gentleman asks. I take a step back to let him try to talk with her. To my surprise, he tosses her over his shoulder; she's kicking and screaming.

"Listen you fucker, if you don't put me down right now I'm going to kick your ass. You will not here the end of this I swear to God." She's brutal with her words but the man doesn't seem to mind.

"The car is this way." I say over Alex's screeches. When we get to the car, the guy puts her on her feet.

"Give me the keys, now." I order Alex. She pulls them out of her front pocket without hesitation although I wish it was because of me, but I know that it was the way that the man handled her that she didn't want to go through that again.

"Get in the car." I tell her. She holds the driver door shut by leaning on it.

"Stop it, Al. We need to get back to town." She nods sarcastically.

"Uh huh. Oh yeah. Where we going to stay? I'm intoxicated. Can't go to my place like this and certainly can't go to yours." Shit! Damnit.

"Well?" She says playfully. I groan. Great. This is great. This is EXACTLY why I didn't want to go to San Antonio!

"I have a place." The gentleman speaks up. I forgot he was standing off to the side so I jump when he talks.

"I don't even know you." I say, giving him an odd look. He puts his hand out for me to shake it.

"Hi, I'm Shane Gray." I shake his hand.

"Mitchie Torres. This is Alex Waverly. We're from Austin about an hour and fifteen minutes from here."

"Yeah, I know where that's at. My place is in Austin." I bite my lip, contemplating the scenarios, ultimately I know that we don't have another option.

"Like I said, I don't know you." Alex slumps up against the car door, staring up at the sky.

"God I fucking love the stars." I try to ignore her.

"Listen, I only want to help you, I promise. I did just save you back there from that creep." He makes a valid point but I still don't know if I can trust him. God I wanna choke Al so bad right now.

"I'm hungry." Al says in a whining tone. Oh great. When she gets whiny she starts to get bitchy. I stare at her for a moment. She's playing with her necklace, twisting it round and round.

"Come on, Mitch. The guy looks harmless." She tells me then looks at him, dead serious, "You have food right?" He laughs but tells her he does.

"I'm glad you find this funny, really." I say rudely to the both of them. He gives me a soft look.

"Sorry. Do you have a phone? I can give you my address." I hand over my phone and click on the Maps app so he can type in his address. I recognize the address, it's the apartment complex just a few miles out from my place.

"Meet you there. Do you need help getting her in the car?" I look over to Alex, trying to decide if she'll cooperate or not.

"Stick around until I get her in." I say simply. I grab her arm and guide her around to the passenger side. I open the door for her and she gets in, bumping her head.

"Fuck, Mitch. Why'd you let that happen?" She raises her voice.

"Alex, listen to me. If you don't shut the hell up, we're never going to get out of here. So stop it." I'm glaring at her and she can tell I'm serious so she moves her legs into the car and shuts up finally. Once I help her fasten her seatbelt, I shut her door, hard.

"Sorry I've been a bitch. This isn't exactly how I expected my night to turn out." Shane nods, understandingly.

"I completely understand. I'll see you in a bit." I watch him walk over a few parking spaces to a motorcycle before I finally decide to walk around to the driver's side of the car. Great. We're going to go stay the night with a biker, who knows how to hurt someone. This is exactly how I pictured my Friday night to go. Whoo-freaking-hoo.

Shane's motorcycle is in perfect view from the rearview mirror of Alex's Mercedes all the way to Austin. He passes me just as we get into town to lead me down his street to the apartment complex. I don't necessarily believe in God, but I believe in prayer so I pray hard that this man doesn't kill us, and if he does, that someone at least finds us. I cannot believe I agreed to go with Al but I can't dwell on that now. I need to focus on getting some rest and getting us back to our places tomorrow. Just staying alive would be fantastic though. That's the very least I'm asking for.

At Shane's apartment, I park next to his bike. Thankfully, Al is asleep in the passenger seat. I shut off the car and quietly shut my door. Shane walks over to Al's door and opens it, unlatches her seatbelt and then carries her inside. I shut the car door and make sure to lock the car before following Shane inside his apartment. Right through the front door is the small kitchen, directly ahead is a staircase that leads to what looks like the basement of sorts. I watch as Shane walks through a small hallway that parts into the living room. I follow him.

"I'm going to go set her in one of the bedrooms upstairs. You can hang for a bit if you don't want to go to sleep yet." I nod, deciding to take a seat on the couch. Shane goes up the narrow stairs with Al fast asleep. I'm not quite tired yet, even though I know it's late. I just need to get my thoughts together before I can go to sleep. Shane returns after about a minute.

"She's out like a light." He says with a small laugh. I raise my eyebrows, letting out a sigh.

"I hope she has a bitching hangover in the morning." I say irritably. He takes a seat on his love seat.

"You sound like you hate her." He scoffs, turning on his TV. I take my shoes off and prop my feet on the couch, trying to get comfortable. Cops is on.

"I don't hate her, I just don't always agree with the stupid shit she does. And the fact that I'm always picking up after her and practically babysitting her." Shane pulls the lever on the side of his chair so he can prop his feet up. He rests his hands over his head.

"You don't have to do that though. If she fucks up, she needs to learn her lesson eventually. That's how you can get caught up in a mess real quick, if you keep following after her to babysit." I rub my hands across my face.

"I don't even know anymore." I say softly, watching the high speed chase on the TV.

"I can tell you care about her though. That's really sweet." Shane compliments me when a commercial comes on. I tilt my head back to look at him.

"We've been friends since we were in preschool. That's why I am the way I am." He smiles and I can tell he understands better now.

"Okay, that makes more sense. How old are you two anyway?" He leans forward a little, intrigued.

"I'm sixteen and so is she. We'll be seventeen this summer in about four months." He nods. I try to read him, to see if he thinks us being young is a big deal or not. I wonder how old he is and if it'd be weird of me to ask. I mean, he did ask how old I was.

"How old are you?" I say, a little awkwardly. It comes out all shaky and my voice cracks. How classy, Mitchie.

"I'm nineteen. I've lived here for about a year. It's cozy."

"It looks perfect for someone fresh out of high school. What do you do?"

"I work on roofs during the good seasons and for the winter I work on heating and cooling in houses. Kind of like a roofer slash higher paid plumber guy." I chuckle at his odd reference. I like his sense of humor.

"You're funny." I tell him with a smile. He smiles back.

"My friends don't think so. At one point in my life I wanted to be a comedian but my friends all dogged me so much for it that I gave up the dream." I decide to sit up so I can see and talk better.

"I'm not sure what I want to do yet. I'll probably become something boring like an accountant. I'm really good at math and writing. That's about it." I shrug, kind of feeling lame about myself.

"There's plenty you can do with math and writing, you just gotta look more." He says confidently. I start yawning.

"Well, if you don't mind, I'm going to bed. Do you mind showing me where I can sleep?" He gets up and we walk towards the upstairs. At the top of the stairs is the restroom and to the left of us are two bedroom doors. He points to the right room, "Alex is in there. You can sleep in that room." He opens the other bedroom door for me. There's a full sized mattress in the middle of the room with a small dresser against the wall below a window. That's about it in the room.

"Where are you going to sleep?" I wonder. Maybe he has something in the basement?

"I'm going to sleep on the couch." I turn to him with guilty eyes.

"Now I feel bad." I say honestly. He chuckles, shaking it off.

"It's fine, really." I start to walk out of the room but he grabs my arm to stop me. Our eyes meet and he looks into mine gently but orderly.

"I can sleep on the couch, really." He says in a serious manner.

"Are you sure? I don't mind couches." Shane grins like he did earlier.

"I'm positive. Please, I wouldn't feel right knowing you were sleeping on the couch." He's such a gentleman and I like that. My exhaustion is really hitting me so I figure best to shut my mouth and do as he's insisting.

"Thank you, Shane. I really appreciate this."

"You're a beautiful young lady who's experienced something that she shouldn't have. It's my pleasure to give you some comfort after a night like this."

I groggily use the bathroom and check the room Alex was in the next afternoon before heading downstairs. I didn't see Alex in her room but I just assume she's with Shane or something. Shane isn't in the living room on the couch but I hear rustling in the kitchen so I walk in there. He's at the stove, placing some bacon in a pan, I love the sizzling sound it makes when he does that.

"I hope you like bacon. Alex said you did." I smile at him, appreciatively.

"I do. Where is she by the way? I didn't see her in her room." Shane throws the empty package in the trash next to him before turning to me. He wipes his hands on the apron he's wearing. It's quite cute.

"She left early. Said she had somewhere to be. I hope you don't mind if I take you home. She left you some clothes on the couch." Well, at least she's good for doing something right.

"Oh and I thought you should know, she had a horrible hangover this morning." Shane tells me with a wide grin. I smile back at him before I walk into the living room. At least Al got some consequence to her actions last night. I know I'll be lucky if I even get an apology though, rarely do I ever. I notice my outfit that I was originally wearing last night is sitting on the edge of the couch. I take it and walk back upstairs to change. Luckily I have a hair tie around my wrist so I put my hair up in a sloppy, crazy bun but I honestly don't care what I look like, I'll probably never see Shane again.

After breakfast, Shane gets dressed and we head outside to get on his bike.

"You'll have to drop me off on my block since my parents thought I stayed with Alex." He nods as he revs the engine.

"Don't lean okay? Just sit there. If you lean you'll knock us over." He tells me as he puts the motorcycle in reverse.

"Well it looks like we're going to die today, then." I tell him, half-joking.

He pulls into a driveway of a house at the beginning of my road. I thank him for the ride as I move towards the sidewalk.

"Listen, do you think I could take you out sometime for dinner?" I honestly wasn't expecting that. I mean after last night I thought he was just being a good citizen. The dude is three years older than me.

"Um, I don't know." I say sheepishly and unsure.

"Come on. Just one time." He puckers his lip playfully. I smile at him. He does seem like a fun guy. One date couldn't hurt.

"Alright, I'll give you my number." He hands me his phone and I dial my number and save my contact.

"Thanks again." I say, waving at him as I walk away.

"Like I said, it was my pleasure." I can't help but notice him wink as he pulls out of the driveway and rides down the street gracefully. Damn. What am I getting myself into?


End file.
